Estonian Plural

If you're trying to learn Estonian Plural you will find some useful resources including a course about Plural and Singular... to help you with your Estonian grammar. Try to concentrate on the lesson and notice the pattern that occurs each time the word changes its place. Also don't forget to check the rest of our other lessons listed on Learn Estonian. Enjoy the rest of the lesson!

Estonian Plural

Learning the Estonian Plural is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you master it the more you get closer to mastering the Estonian language. But first we need to know what the role of Plural is in the structure of the grammar in Estonian.

Estonian Plurals are grammatical numbers, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. In the English language, singular and plural are the only grammatical numbers.

Grammar Tips:
To form the plural of nouns and adjectives in Estonian it is necessary to memorize words in the 4 principal grammatical cases and use these cases to form the plural of the rest of the grammatical cases (there are 14 cases all in all). The nominative plural is formed from the genitive singular by adding -d, e.g. the nominative case of "raamat" (the book) in the plural is: genitive singular "raamatu" + -d: "raamatud" (books)l. The grammatical cases represent the meaning of prepositions: e.g. "sõpradele" (to friends), "sõpradest" (about friends), "majadest" (from houses).

Here are some examples:

English Plural

Estonian Plural

Plural

Mitmus

my book

minu raamat

my books

mu raamatud

our daughter

meie tütar

our daughters

meie tütred

I'm cold

mul on külm

we're cold

meil on külm

his chickens

tema kanad

their chicken

nende kanad

Notice the structure of the Plural in Estonian has a logical pattern. Locate the Plural above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Estonian.

Grammar Tips:

While in English, the plural is formed by
adding (s) to the singular. In Estonian, to form the plural nominative case of nouns, pronouns,
adjectives, and numbers we add (-d)to the singular genitive case of the word. Here
are some examples:

List of Plurals in Estonian

Below is a list of the Plurals and Singulars in Estonian placed in a table. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Estonian vocabulary.

English Plural

Estonian Plural

alligator

alligaator

alligators

alligaatorid

bear

karu

bears

karud

bird

lind

birds

linnud

bull

pull

bulls

pullid

cat

kass

cats

kassid

cow

lehm

cows

lehmad

deer

hirv

many deer

palju hirvesid

dog

koer

dogs

koerad

donkey

eesel

donkeys

eeslid

eagle

kotkas

eagles

kotkad

elephant

elevant

elephants

elevandid

giraffe

kaelkirjak

giraffes

kaelkirjakud

goat

kits

goats

kitsed

horse

hobune

horses

hobused

lion

lõvi

lions

lõvid

monkey

ahv

monkeys

ahvid

mouse

hiir

mice

hiired

rabbit

küülik

rabbits

küülikud

snake

madu

snakes

maod

tiger

tiiger

tigers

tiigrid

wolf

hunt

wolves

hundid

Plural and Singular have a very important role in Estonian. Once you're done with Estonian Plural, you might want to check the rest of our Estonian lessons here: Learn Estonian. Don't forget to bookmark this page.